


Accepting Amelioration

by XILVerify



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Daemon Touching, Daemons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Non Consensual Daemon Touching, Recovery, Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Team Dynamics, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:09:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8826175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XILVerify/pseuds/XILVerify
Summary: Shiro trusts his team with his life, but after what he and his daemon experienced at the hands of the Galra… well, trusting them with his soul is the one thing he just can’t bring himself to do. Or so he thinks. Daemon AU. Post season 1 speculation.





	

**Author's Note:**

> ~ _Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane_ – Pyrenean mountain dog – _Miyuzuki_ : means “beautiful, gentle moon” in Japanese
> 
> ~ _Keith Cogain_ – golden eagle – _Asperatia_ : derived from the name for a type of cloud formation, Latin for “roughened” or “agitated.”
> 
> ~ _Lance McLain_ – white wagtail – _Nuejia (“Noo-ay-he-ah”)_ : an amalgam of the Spanish word “nueva,” meaning “new,” and the Hindi word “jia,” meaning “heart”
> 
> ~ _Pidge Gunderson/Katie Holt_ – green and bronze poison dart frog – _Vexenon_ : an amalgam of the Latin verb “vexo” which means “to shake or disturb,” and the Greek word “xenon,” which means “foreign,” “stranger,” or “guest,” and is a noble gas used in computers, cameras, lasers, and anesthesia.
> 
> ~ _Tyler “Hunk” Garret_ – bumblebee – _Kala’ina_ : an amalgam of the Hawaiian words for “sunshine” and “land”
> 
> Humans are the only species in the known universe to have daemons. Other sentient races have their own unique ways of relating with Dust and consciousness. Further information on each daemon and their settled forms can be found [here](http://x-i-l-verify.tumblr.com/post/146288929665/voltron-daemon-au-headcanons). More Voltron Daemon AU content can be found [here](http://x-i-l-verify.tumblr.com/tagged/Voltron-Daemon-AU/chrono).

The first time he sees it happen, Shiro nearly trips over his own feet in surprise and Miyuzuki almost walks straight into a wall. Hunk and Lance are in the dining area, which isn’t out of the ordinary in and of itself, but the sight of Nuejia perched _on Hunk’s hand_ is.

It’s only for a split second or so, wherein the little bird deftly plucks a roasted seed pod out of the large teen’s fingers and flutters back to her human, who pops the treat into his mouth with the smuggest look of satisfaction Shiro’s ever seen. Hunk sputters wordlessly for a moment, and then takes off after Lance, who flees from the room, his manic cackles and his daemon’s twittering laughter mingling with Hunk’s indignant, overly-dramatic cries of “Thief!” as he pursues.

After Shiro metaphorically picks his jaw up off the floor and has had some time to think it over the puzzling incident, he figures that in hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have been surprised. The paladins aren’t just bonded to their lions, after all. Being scattered all over creation after their assault on Zarkon’s stronghold drove that point home all too well. There had been an ever-present ache in his heart, a longing he couldn’t explain or even put into words that was almost physically painful, which only eased when he’d seen the other paladins alive and well again. By the looks of sheer relief on their faces, Shiro was certain they’d been feeling the same way, too. He had privately asked Allura about it later, and she’d looked surprised.

“Did you not feel the bond come into being the first time you five formed Voltron?” she’d inquired. “Each time you and the other four paladins form Voltron and the longer you spend around each other, it will only grow stronger and stronger between you. It is, of course, a gradual process, and if you are not aware it is happening, I can imagine it would catch you off guard if something drastic happened.”

“Like being scattered across the universe,” Shiro had replied, realization dawning as Miyu pressed up against his leg, her comforting and familiar presence grounding him to the here and now.

The princess nodded sympathetically. “The bond between paladins is not the same as it is between a paladin and their lion, but it is no less vital or important. You are, quite simply, meant to be a close, cohesive unit, and spending too much time apart over such long distances overtaxes the bond between you. If you had spent longer as a team or been more experienced with your lions, the feeling would have been much more severe.” The worrying possibilities wrapped in that statement had haunted Shiro the rest of the day, but it certainly explained a lot.

Ever since they’d reunited after the wormhole incident, everyone, even Lance and Keith, wonder of wonders, had been getting along better. Shiro hadn’t really pondered on it much, merely determined to enjoy the relative peace however long it lasted, but now he supposes that it was only natural that having their bond tested so early could potentially lead to the paladins becoming closer and more visibly affectionate with each other. And Lance and Hunk had always been particularly close friends, even before the lions were found. Both were also very trusting, friendly, outgoing, and affectionate people by nature. It made sense that their bond would deepen to such an extent that they would feel comfortable showing each other the ultimate expression of trust and intimacy so relatively quickly and in such a casual manner. Shiro does his best to not question or think about it further and moves on.

-0-0-

The second time Shiro sees it, he’s a bit more prepared, but it still comes as a shock. It’s after a particularly grueling battle with yet another Robeast the Galra have sent after them. All the paladins are still shaken from just how close both Lance and Hunk came to death after the Robeast aimed a swipe at Voltron’s legs with a huge double-bladed axe. The team had just barely managed to incapacitate their opponent before it was able to mount another similar attack, but the damage had already been done. The blue and yellow lions had been badly damaged in the assault and both their paladins and their daemons were currently recuperating in the infirmary after sustaining serious injuries. After making sure Hunk and Lance were going to be alright, Shiro searches for his remaining two teammates to make sure they’re holding up as well. He finds them in one of the many sitting rooms in the Castle, seated side by side on a padded bench with their backs to him, talking so quietly to each other that not even Miyu with her superior hearing can quite make out what’s being said. Keith has his head bowed, his shoulders shaking visibly, and from her dejected perch on his shoulder, Asperatia looks no better, her proud head hung as low as her human’s.

With a pang Shiro realizes that the reason the Robeast was able to damage Voltron’s legs so badly was because the first sweep of the Blazing Sword went wide and missed its target, and he mentally kicks himself for not pulling Keith aside earlier. The poor kid must be blaming himself for Lance and Hunk’s conditions right now. But before he can move, Pidge murmurs something and reaches up as if to put her hand on Keith’s shoulder, only to hesitate for a split second before brushing her fingers lightly across one of Asperatia’s wings. Both Asperatia and Keith start at the foreign touch, but the eagle daemon doesn’t pull away, which says more than words could ever hope to. The contact only lasts a second, and then Pidge wraps her arm around Keith’s and leans into him, saying nothing and just letting her presence comfort him further.

Shiro wordlessly walks over, and once they register his presence, Pidge and Keith scoot over to make room for him. He sits between the two paladins, putting an arm around each. Something warm sparks in his chest as they both as one lean into him, Pidge wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek against his shirt, and Keith leaning his head on his shoulder. He pretends to not see the tears sliding down Keith’s cheeks. Miyu settles at their feet with a sigh, chin in her paws, and Vexenon hops down to burrow into her thick fur, closely followed by Asperatia, who flutters down and nestles up to the large dog daemon’s side. They all sit and look at the stars speed by until Allura comes looking for them to tell them that Lance has woken up.

-0-0-

Now that he’s looking for it, Shiro notices it more and more. One day at lunch, a rubbery berry-like fruit that was considered a delicacy on the planet they’d just left bounces off of Pidge’s plate after she attempts to spear it with her spork and goes rolling across the table. Vexenon hops quickly after it, scrambling over Lance’s arm in his mad dash to grab it before it falls off the table. Lance looks somewhat startled at the sudden contact, but obligingly reaches over with his other arm and snatches the fruit before it rolls onto the floor. He hands it to the small amphibian daemon before making a smart remark about Pidge not being able to handle a spork (which earns him a prompt elbow to the side from the smaller girl) and goes back to his own meal without a second thought.

Another evening, Shiro heads to the kitchen to grab a snack, only to find Hunk slumped over the book of intergalactic recipes he’d been compiling, sound asleep on the plush chair he’d moved into the room and drooling slightly on one of the pages. A little ways away, Keith had been polishing and sharpening the cutlery at one of the counters, judging from the impressive and slightly alarming amount of knives and sharp, pointy objects out on display. Asperatia is perched on another counter nearby, looking comfortably drowsy, and the barely-visible gold and black speck nestled in her feathers can only be Kala’ina. Keith stretches, yawning, and appears to converse silently with his daemon, looking from her to Hunk’s slumbering form and back again. He walks over to her and delicately scoops up the tiny, slumbering bumblebee, carefully cradling her in his hands as if she were made of spun sugar and glass. A little buzz of her wings is the only movement she makes as she’s picked up other than to curl closer to the warmth of Keith’s fingers, and Hunk doesn’t stir at all, even when Keith gently deposits the insect deamon in the younger boy’s hair and tiptoes back to the counter, beginning to put the cutlery away with as little noise as he can manage. Shiro turns on his heel and walks back the way he came, Miyu padding along silently beside him. He can get something to eat later.

-0-0-

As time goes by, the little pangs of longing that goes through Shiro every time he sees his teammates express their trust and affection for each other with every light brush of fingers against feathers, nudge of a tiny, fuzzy insect body against a cheek, or press of cool, slick frog skin against a palm get stronger and stronger, and he knows Miyu feels the same. Everyone at one point or another fantasizes about finding that someone or someones; the people you have a such a deep and intimate connection to that you’d trust them to hold your very soul in the palm of their hand and treasure it as if it were their own. People find those someones in many different places and types of relationships. Shiro… Shiro’s coming to believe he just might have found them in this small, ragtag band of amazing, wonderful, talented kids with the weight of the universe suddenly thrust upon their shoulders. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to imagine life without the four of them in it. He loves them. It’s no great revelation or surprise; it’s just a simple statement of fact. Space is cold, stars are hot, water is wet, Shiro loves his teammates. He and Miyu would put their lives on the line for any one of them in a heartbeat if need be.

But every time he contemplates someone laying a hand on his daemon, an uncontrollable rush of revulsion and terror overwhelms him, memories of searing, fiery pain, of the disgusting sensation of phantom hands wrapped around his neck, crushing his heart, clawing through his internal organs, digging through every secret part of him and irrevocably tainting it. That instinctual, visceral reaction, combined with the half-remembered nightmares he and Miyuzuki wake up with every other night, tells him all he needs to know about what was done to them while they were prisoners, and the thought of experiencing that again is almost too much for him to bear. He knows, they know none of the others would ever even dream of hurting them this way, they know it, they do, they _do_ , but the couple of times a hand gets even remotely close to Miyu that isn’t Shiro’s, that instinctual fear rears its ugly head in both of them and she shies away, disguising it by pretending she was planning on scratching herself or walking off in another direction.

And the inverse is true as well. When Pidge is clinging to him, sobbing because she wasn’t able to get her shield up in time to save that cargo ship full of refugees, Shiro wants so badly to do what she did for Keith, to comfort her soul, to let her feel, not just tell her, that neither he nor the other paladins blame her, that she did all she could, but the second his hand moves toward Vexenon, tucked inside the collar of her armor and clinging to her bodysuit, he stops, paralyzed with indecision. What if Vex doesn’t want to be touched? What if he hurts them? What if he somehow accidentally does to them what the Galra did to him and Miyu? He can’t take that risk, he just can’t. He would never forgive himself if he hurt them. So instead, he drops his hand and rests it on her back and just holds her as she cries.

He hates this, hates being so weak, being constantly reminded how utterly broken he is. He should be stronger than this. Paladins are supposed to trust each other, aren’t they? Then why can’t he bring himself to trust them with this? What kind of leader is he that he can’t even trust his own teammates in the way that matters most?  

Just another thing the Galra have taken from them, Shiro thinks bitterly, in the privacy of his own quarters.

_We just need time,_ Miyuzuki tells him silently, resting her chin on his knee and looking up at him with her large brown eyes. _We’ll get through this._

_What if we don’t?_ he replies, wrapping his arms around his middle and looking away from her. _What if we never do?_

She doesn’t reply.

-0-0-

“-iro? Shiro! Come on, buddy, answer me! Are you okay?” The tinny, frantic voice over his helmet’s radio is what finally pulls the black paladin back to the land of the living, and he blearily opens his eyes to complete darkness. After a brief moment of alarm, he realizes that no, it’s not 100% dark, just mostly, as the blue bands on his suit are still giving off a very faint blue glow. “Shiro! Come in, Shiro!”

“Ugh… Hunk?” Shiro sits up stiffly, putting one hand to his aching head. “What happened?”

“Oh, thank goodness!” comes Hunk’s relieved voice on the other end of the line. “You’ve been out for at least 10 minutes, man! I was beginning to worry you weren’t going to wake up. Good thing I could see Miyu, or I would have really been freaking out. Oh… uh, speaking of which, are you okay?” Shiro isn’t listening anymore. A blank panic settles around his mind as he reaches out mentally for his daemon, desperately calling her name in his head. He nearly cries in relief when he feels her respond sluggishly, their bond stretched but not too uncomfortably so. Through her eyes, he sees Hunk, covered in dust and dirt, but otherwise looking relatively unharmed, and a jumbled wall of fallen rocks that is blocking the back of the cave they’ve taken shelter in. Shiro realizes that he must be on the other side of the rock wall at the same time Miyuzuki does, and with a whimper, she struggles to her feet, nearly yelping as she rests weight on her right foreleg and searing pain shoots up her limb. They both immediately know it’s broken, but habit tells them to not let the pain show any more than necessary.

“Dude, you gotta talk to me, okay?” Shiro focuses again on Hunk’s voice. “Are you hurt?”

“Uh…” Shiro mentally takes stock. His head still aches and his limbs are sore, but he doesn’t think he has any broken bones, and he’s not bleeding. His Galra arm is dented and scratched, and he feels something rattle inside when he moves it. “A bit banged up, but nothing major, I don’t think. What about you?”

“We’re okay,” Hunk quickly replies. Miyu can see Kala buzzing around his head, the little daemon seemingly reassuring herself that her human half is fine before she flies over to Miyu, alighting on her nose. “Nothing a good night’s rest probably can’t fix. Thank goodness that these suits are temperature controlled, though, or else I’d be in a lot worse shape.” Oh right, the snowstorm outside.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Kala asks quietly, sounding concerned. “The bond isn’t stretched too much, is it?”

“We’ve had worse,” Miyu replies reassuringly, though Shiro can feel her internal turmoil at being so cut off from him again. “It’ll be fine.”

“Have you been able to find any weak points in the rock slide?” Shiro asks, trying to change the subject to distract both himself and his teammate. He activates his metal hand to give himself more light. The bright purple glow sputters once worryingly before illuminating the rocks around and behind him. He notices that one came very close to nearly caving his head in, and he barely suppresses a shudder.

“No, not yet. There are a few places Kala can sense airflow, and she might be able to get through those, but most of these stones are too heavy to move, and I don’t want to cause another rockslide. And I don’t think you want me to use my bayard in such close quarters, either.”

Shiro grimaces. “That would probably be a bad idea, yeah.”

“So I guess we’ll just have to wait until the others figure out we didn’t come back on schedule and track us down using our suits.”

Shiro sighs, and immediately regrets it when it comes out far more weary and put upon than he intended. “That’s alright, Hunk. We’ll be fine. I’m sure it won’t take them more than a couple hours to find us.” He sits and rests his back against the rock wall behind him, his hand still glowing brightly. If he’s in complete darkness he suspects he might actually panic.  

“If those crazy natives don’t find us first,” Kala buzzes angrily, crawling up Miyu’s muzzle to huddle huffily in the fur atop her head. “I really hope the others had better luck with their diplomatic meetings. I can’t wait to get off of this stupid ice planet for good.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you there,” Miyu replies, settling down and resting her chin on her paws, pain thrumming through her broken leg. “We’ve had enough of ice and the dark to last a life-” The light on Shiro’s hand sputters and goes out, plunging his half of the cave into darkness. He frantically tries to move it and finds that it won’t respond to his brain’s commands anymore.

Shiro’s heart skips a beat and his breath catches in his throat as Miyu lurches back to her feet with a panicked whimper. Hearing his gasp, Hunk immediately demands, “What’s wrong?”

“My arm,” Shiro chokes out as Miyu limps up to the wall and scratches at the rocks futilely. It’s a pointless gesture, but it makes her feel better to be up and doing something than just sitting and waiting for someone else to do something. “It won’t activate anymore. It’s… just… really dark. It’s okay, I’ll be fine, just… give me a moment,” he feels the need to add, to keep Hunk from worrying too much. He pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his working arm around them, trying to even out his breathing and focus on what he can see through Miyu’s eyes instead of the darkness all around him, but it’s hard, it’s so hard, and he wants out, he wants out, he just wants to get out, he- wait, did Hunk just say something?

“Wh-what?” he stutters, trying to slow his breathing. “I’m sorry Hunk, I didn’t catch that. Come again?”

“He said,” pipes up a feminine voice above and to the right of his head, “that I’m coming in after you so you can have some company.” Shiro only barely restrains himself from leaping a foot into the air.

“Kala?” he says, shocked both at being directly addressed by his friend’s daemon and having her so near. “How did you-?”

“I’m a bug, silly,” Kala’ina says, sounding fondly amused. “It’s not like there aren’t spaces between the rocks, and I don’t need my eyes to see you. But your suit is giving off some light, if that makes you feel better. Oh, yikes.” She must have seen his busted arm. “Yeah, that looks bad. Pidge is gonna have a field day fixing that.”

“Speaking of arms.” Hunk steps closer to where Miyu is pacing in front of the wall, his eyes trained worriedly on the leg that she’s holding gingerly in midair to keep it from touching the ground. He reaches out a hand. “Miyu, you’re limping. If you want, I could take a look at that for y-” A panicked growl cuts him off as the daemon backs away, tail tucked between her legs, and the look of surprised hurt on Hunk’s face prompts Shiro to speak up.

“It’s really not necessary, Hunk, we can wait until we get back to the Castle,” he says quickly, trying to salvage this. “Thanks for offering, though.”

Hunk doesn’t reply for a moment, still looking at Miyu. “Do you really think I’d hurt you?” The quiet, sad question makes something twist deep inside Shiro’s gut.

“No!” he answers immediately, almost shouting the word as Miyu hangs her head remorsefully, whimpering. “No,” he says again, quieter. “We don’t think that at all, Hunk. We just… we can manage, okay?”

“But you shouldn’t have to,” Kala speaks up from her perch above his head after another moment passes in silence.

“Miyu,” Hunk begins, getting down on one knee in front of the dog daemon but keeping a respectable distance, “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do. But you’re hurt, and I can set your leg to ease the pain until we can get you back to the Castle. You don’t have to bear everything by yourself. I just want to help you. So please, let me.”

Miyu wants to. She wants to so bad. Shiro can feel how much her leg is hurting her, and he wants the pain to stop just as much as she does. They sit for a few long seconds in silent, indecisive agony, before the dog daemon hesitantly limps forward a few steps, trembling. She silently offers her paw, looking away from Hunk in fear and shame. Hunk removes his helmet, unties his bandana, and roots around in the loose stones at their feet for a makeshift splint. He reaches for Miyu’s paw, places a long, thin shard of rock against her leg, and begins wrapping his bandanna around it. His fingers brush her fur once, and despite his previous words, Shiro instinctively braces himself for the familiar feeling of fire, pain, the invasive, disgusting feeling of intrusion, wrongness, and violation that he’s become accustomed to. But to Shiro’s surprise, Hunk’s touch sends a fleeting whisper of something warm and comforting through the core of his being, like being enveloped in a brief, tight hug that’s soul deep instead of skin deep. The utterly alien sensation stuns both Shiro and his daemon so much that they don’t move at all while Hunk works.

The yellow paladin finishes his ministrations in what seems to be record time, tying off his bandana in a neat knot. As he withdraws his hands, leans back, and starts to get to his feet, a low, piteous whine stops him cold. The plaintive, needy, _desperate_ sound is so foreign and unexpected that it takes Shiro a second to realize that the sound came from his own daemon. She’s locked eyes with Hunk, begging mutely for something neither she nor Shiro can put words to. The teenager seems to understand her wordless plea, and after a moment’s hesitation, reaches out again and this time deliberately strokes her once atop her head.

Gentle heat ignites like a firework in Shiro’s chest, the sensation taking his breath away. With it comes a jumbled rush of pure emotion from the sudden connection between his soul and Hunk, a rolling wave of worrydistresscompassiontendernessaffectionfondness **love** pouring directly into his mind, surrounding and supporting him, like he’s being enveloped by a golden, fathomless ocean. Shiro feels like he’s both drowning and finally waking up from a long nightmare all at once, and he doesn’t want this moment to ever, ever end.

It inevitably does, however, and after the initial shock wears off slightly, Shiro abruptly realizes that his cheeks are wet with tears. A loud buzzing near his head clues him into the fact that Kala must have noticed this, because he hears a quiet, comforting whisper of “It’s okay, Shiro, we’ve got you, we’re here,” before a feather-light weight drops onto his shoulder into the hollow between his neck and the collar of his armor, nestling against him trustingly. At the same time, Hunk sits and leans against the wall opposite him, Miyu melting to the floor beside him with her face pressed against the boy’s leg, whimpering low in her chest. Her tail wags slowly as he continues to tenderly card his fingers through her soft white fur. The pads of his fingers inevitably find the intricate latticework of scars under her fur, but he doesn’t shy away or withdraw in disgust, merely tracing the ones he encounters lightly as he begins to hum a traditional Hawaiian lullaby. Kala also begins to carry the tune herself, and her humming and Hunk’s harmonize with each other effortlessly, the melody wrapping around the two paladins and their daemons and enclosing them safely in a small, protective, healing bubble of sound, warmth, and comfort, as if they’re the only beings in the universe right then.

Shiro doesn’t exactly know how long they stay like that, but eventually, a faint signal comes in over their helmet radios. Keith. He’s informed of the situation, relays the information to the other two paladins, and the three find them quickly now that they’ve picked up the tracking signals on their suits. Despite both of them not really wanting to move, Shiro and Hunk get up and reposition themselves to one side of the cavern. The cave mouth is just barely wide enough that the Red Lion can fit its paw inside, and it dexterously reaches in and knocks a few boulders out of the middle of the rockslide so that Shiro can now escape the cave along with Hunk.

Shiro blinks at the sudden bright light pouring into the back of the cavern, and as the Red Lion withdraws to give them space, the black paladin clambers over the remaining rocks as best he can with one arm, Kala staying huddled against his neck all the while. The first thing he sees as he climbs down is Hunk walking briskly toward him, slowly enough that the limping Miyu can keep up. While the sight of his daemon standing so close to someone else is an extremely surreal one, Shiro has other things on his mind right then, and once Hunk is within arm’s reach, Shiro immediately reaches out and pulls him into a tight, one-armed hug, Miyu pressing up close against both of them. The feeling of human contact combined with finally being reunited with his daemon threatens to overwhelm him again, but he manages to keep himself in check this time.

As Hunk reflexively returns his hug, Shiro, his voice thick with emotion, whispers a simple, “Thank you.” The short phrase seems so paltry and trivial in light of everything that just happened, but it feels like he should say something anyway. He knows that words can’t really convey what he’s feeling right now, so he just hopes that Hunk and Kala can sense everything in his heart that goes unsaid in those two words through their temporary connection. He feels Hunk’s hug tighten for a moment, and then the teen leans back and lightly clanks his helmet against Shiro’s, his bright, companionable smile all the reply that’s needed.

Shiro hesitantly lifts his hand up to his shoulder, palm outstretched, and Kala fearlessly crawls onto it. She pats his palm twice with her foreleg and lifts off, alighting on her human’s finger as Miyu brushes by Hunk’s leg and comes to stand fully at Shiro’s side once again. As one, the paladins turn toward the exit of the cave, where they can faintly see three human forms making their way towards them through the falling snow, two birds - one large, one small - flying above their heads, the silhouettes of their lions watchful sentinels in the distance. An unexpected warmth fills Shiro at the sight of his team, and he can feel that something inside of him has shifted. Something jagged and broken and hurting, always a subconscious ache in the back of his mind, isn’t quite so painful anymore, like some of the sharp edges of the pieces of a broken plate have been gently sanded down and fitted back together.

_We’re gonna be okay, Shiro._ Miyu, limping along in her customary place at his side, whispers to him silently as he and Hunk step foot outside the cave. _We’re not now, but with their help, we will be. I know it._ And right here, right now… Shiro allows himself to believe that maybe, just maybe, she’s right.  
  
-0-0-0-

_I’ve come undone_  
_But you make sense of who I am_  
_Like puzzle pieces in your hand_  
  
_Then I see your face_  
_I know I’m finally yours_  
_I find everything I thought I lost before_  
_You call my name_  
_I come to you in pieces_  
_So you can make me whole_

**~[“Pieces” by Red](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D8Uw8mIcQJn8&t=MDYwNWQxZDhkNTRiNzU5ZGM4NzY0MGUwOWM3MDQyNmVlMzg4NjgxNyxnQ0F5MjJnRw%3D%3D&b=t%3ApbsEIsqXN7ka8kjFZoH7MA&m=1)**


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